Apple clarifies App Store approval process, fart apps not welcome

Responding to developer demands that it clarify its approval process, Apple on Thursday published, for the first time, a document that details what it is looking for in new apps. If anything could be taken away from the new public policy, it may be that the approval process could get more difficult for some.

Apple appears ready to start rejecting apps based on duplicate themes to preexisting content, and it would hold apps to a higher quality standard. Apps have become ever more inappropriate in the App Store as of late, and the Cupertino company did express concern that children may be gaining access to these inappropriate apps.

"We have lots of kids downloading lots of apps, and parental controls don't work unless parents set them up (many don't)," the company said. Adding that it had over 250,000 apps in the store, it quipped that it "didn't need anymore fart apps," a disapproving nod to those developers which have increasingly turned to seedier content.

(A full version of the guidelines document has been provided by AppleInsider.)

Apps are judged on their quality as well as content. Apple would look at how it is put together in order to make decisions on whether it would be approved. It also cautioned those who think going to the press would force it's hand.

"If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps," it wrote.

Undocumented features would cause an application's rejection, as well as those that don't provide "lasting entertainment value." Web browsing apps must use the WebKit framework, and developers that spam the App Store with multiple versions of the same application may be banned altogether from the developer program.

Guidelines for the use of streaming media call for an app to use less than five megabytes of bandwidth in five minutes over a cellular network. Video content would be mandated to use HTTP live streaming, and include a baseline 64kbps audio-only stream.

"Even though this document is a formidable list of what not to do, please also keep in mind the much shorter list of what you must do. Above all else, join us in trying to surprise and delight users," it concluded. "We are ready to help."